The original settlers to Kenosha County were a group of citizens from Hannibal, NY. The settlers formed
The Western Emigrating Company. If your ancestors came to Kenosha (then Southport) as a part of the
Western Emigrating Company,
you will want to visit these Web Sites featuring Oswego County and more specifically, Hannibal New York.

The HERRMANN Family Migrations
Johann (John) Herrmann and Catharina Altes Herrmann
Correspondence to the Kenosha County GenWeb, May 2001 from
Carol Elrod
Thank you, Carol!

According to a family history prepared by my great-aunt, Mathilda Herrmann Wedeking, her father, Frederick Herrmann, along with his parents, Johann (John) Herrmann and Catharina Altes Herrmann, arrived in
Kenosha in July, 1856. Other children in the family also made the trip from their home in Lollbach (near Meisenheim), Germany to New York, arriving there 12 July 1856. Frederick's oldest brother, also named
Johann, was already in New York and accompanied them on the train bound for Kenosha. Another brother, Jacob, had left Germany earlier and was already working in Racine.

From Kenosha, in time, the family scattered. Johann, the son, died in Tell City, IN, in June, 1904. Son Jacob died in Tell City in 1898. Son Peter died in Evansville, IN, in 1896. Dau. Kate married Jacob Herzog
and lived in Chicago. Son Frederick lived in Tell City and later Evansville, IN, where he d. 25 Feb. 1927. Son Charles lived on a farm in Somers Twp. near Tell City. Another son died in infancy, and another dau.
d. 1865 - perhaps in Kenosha.

Son Phillip, I believe, first went to Kenosha, but he died in Panama of yellow fever on his way to California in 1859, according to the family history.

My aunt wrote that Johann bought an 80 acre farm in Paris Twp. soon after arriving in Wisconsin, but it was not listed on the bureau of land management website. It was not apparently a land patent sale.

On Feb. 17, 1864, Frederick enlisted in the Union Army at Camp Randall near Paris, Kenosha County. He was assigned to Co. E. First Wisconsin Infantry. At the battle of Kennesaw Mountain on 27 June 1864,
he was struck by a shell. He received treatment in Nashville, Tenn. from July to Oct 1864, then was transferred to a hospital in Milwaukee, where he remained from Nov. 1864 to Feb., 1865, at which time he left
the hospital and rejoined his unit, which then was the 21st Wisconsin Infantry. At war's end, he returned to Kenosha, where he was a farmer.

By then, brothers John and Peter were in Tell City, where they had begun a wagon-making company, and Frederick soon followed them there. That had been the family profession in Lollbach. My uncle, Gustav
Herrmann, said that when visiting Lollbach in the 1920s, the wagon-making sign that hung above their shop was still visible in the ruins of the house. It was not when my husband and I visited Lollbach in 1958,
although we did see the foundation of the house - and, I might add, saw the names of all the family members listed in the church records.

The Comings and Goings of Kenoshans

Do you know when your ancestors arrived in Kenosha? Did they move elsewhere after living in Kenosha? Please submit migrations to this list.
You may email us. Thanks.